jy 






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-BY- 



Jffelen ^ariieii iSri'd^fman 



Reprinted from The Standard Union, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 



THE FATHERLAND 

New York 

1915 




IG TOWARD PEACE 



-BY- 



JVelen Siartlett i^rid^fman 



Author of 

AN AMERICAN WOMAN'S 
PLEA FOR GERMANY 



Reprinted from The Standard Union, 
Brooklyn, N, Y, 



Germany, 191 5. 



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Fronting the world, she stands erect 
In valor, strength, and self-respect. 
The threats and insults of her foes 
She answers grim, with scorn and blows. 
In peace, a wisely ordered State; 
In war, she shows herself as great; 
Witness, the drenching blood that stains 
Polonian, Gallic, Belgian plains, 
Whilst Britain's coasts at spectres stare 
That leap from sea, or drop from air. 

The world ere now such marvel saw 

Never, and halts 'twixt rage and awe. 

Vain rage! This stark, consummate might 

Is girt with adamantine right — 

The right to live beneath the sun, 

The right to hold what has been won 

By toil and science, thrift and art. 

In camp and farm, in school and mart — 

A right which still without avail 

Revenge and cant and greed assail. 

Before such prowess rage must sink, 
And ge7ierous mirids be bold to think. 
Hypocrisy hath here no place; 
Barbarian? — that imperial race! 
By Heaven, yon Germany, today 
Holding so splendidly at bay 
Those variegated tribes of men, 
Is not a thing to hunt and pen! 

Enough of blind, hysteric fear, 
Enough of menace, vaunt, and sneer. 
Enough of gliastly tales untrue! 
Give the heroic State her due! 
Strength to her arm, and to her brow 
All glory that the gods allow! 

W. P. TRENT. 



^LV^ 



^rb ' i C 



HI TOWiD PEACE. 



On the soil of her enemies Germany wages a war not of aggres- 
sion but defense — a fact only half realized. Because of her geographical 
position, a vast plain without natural boundaries, this is not only the 
established policy of her military authorities, but a clear expression of 
Nature's first law. Had she, one to three, in this unfair struggle, not 
fought thus, even with the finest army in the world, she might by this 
time have met that sad fate which her opponents so cheerfully, if a 
little blindly, assume. 

She, therefore, can accept no peace weakening her territorial in- 
tegrity; and confident of her ability to carry on this defensive war in- 
definitely, it is practically certain that she will not give up Belgium. 

After what we know now of the close political relations among the 
trio, Belgium must never again come under the control of England or 
France. The little nation will profit by this change of masters ; she will 
forever be protected from the cabals of neighbors; she will share in 
the prestige and prosperity of a great modern Power; above all, she 
will be rescued from that widespread illiteracy already a menace. If 
the rough element, Walloons and their like, at the outbreak of hostilities 
had been able to read the placards posted in public places by their 
own Government, commanding civilians not to fire on the invading 
army, Louvain at this moment would be as intact as Brussels. 

Germany is not likely to surrender the control of the Rhine by 
giving up Alsace-Lorraine, the unchallenged property of the Germanic 
people for eight centuries, wrested from them at last by Louis XIV. 
All she need consider in this connection, since the Reichsland's rising 
generation seems with her body and soul, is how best to dispose of a 
few old French families who prefer to create disturbance rather than 
vacate the premises. Germany long has desired to transform France 
into a friend; but if this proves impossible, she may remain, as an 
assurance of good faith, exactly where she is — behind that natural 
barrier along the Meuse and Aisne. 

France fails to perceive her true place in the scheme of things. 
Her destiny lies not in land adventure ; in colonies for surplus popula- 
tion that never comes ; but in the significant and beautiful task of do- 
mestic development, where she stands without a peer. How infinitely 
better this, for a nation of her taste and temperament, than costly ex- 
periments in alien lands, requiring those unholy alliances which are 
at the root of all her troubles. 

The great wound in Prussia's flank, caused by Poland's projection 
into her eastern frontier, is a political as well as topographical eyesore. 
That motley collection of Poles and Jews, fighting according to the 



changing fortunes of war for Russia, Germany and Austria alike, con- 
sequently pronounced traitors by all three, may result in one of those 
nondescript "buffer" states accepted but never loved. If Germany 
were indisputably victorious, or could offer Russia sufficient compen- 
sation in the South, she might be able to improve her contour by oc- 
cupying Poland permanently as she already has tentatively, through the 
large Teutonic population settled there. Wherever, with his efficient 
labor, his scientific thoroughness and general enlightenment, the Ger- 
man elects to go, prosperity for himself and all about him is sure to 
follow. This late industrial invasion has done more for Poland than all 
the hard rule of the Czar for a hundred years. _ 

With its intrigues and its injustice the Triple Entente rather than 
the Triple Alliance, though the latter was the more deeply concerned, 
caused the crisis in the Balkans; and it is in the Near East that the 
vital settlements of this war will finally centre. Russia's age-long 
yearn for Constantinople may now be appeased. Good strategy it 
might prove for Germany and Austria to pay serious heed to this 
legitimate national aspiration, since now, through the Turk, they have 
the power. Russia, as Bismarck repeatedly pointed out, would be less 
dangerous with free access to the world's marts than pent up in the 
Black Sea. If the need to distribute her natural riches through an ice- 
free port is met, her already enormous territory should prevent her for 
a thousand years from sighing for more worids to conquer. So it 
follows that whether England plays her spectacular part before Con- 
stantinople well or ill, Russia is likely to come into her own— if not in 
exclusive occupation itself, at least in all essentials. Turkey, held so 
long and so meanly as a pawn by Great Britain, could easily find a 
better friend, if events favored her, as they may; and if not, there is 
always the quiet beauty of her own Asia, which after the nightmare o. 
half a millenium in Europe should seem one long, sweet dream. 

Before Constantinople, France and Italy have no proper place ; but 
England cannot get over her bad habit of sticking a finger into every 
political pie. Italy's sly exploit in Tripoli was a blow, and a blow driven 
home by the other members of the Triple Alliance, for which friendly 
aid, let us hope, she is more grateful than she appears to be. 
Despite a hard knock now and then, Great Britain still seems 
obsessed by the notion that the world is her oyster — the other fellow 
getting only the shell. Fighting so long England's battles for her, the 
other fellow grows tired of his job — he demands a show. If only John 
Bull were as wise as he is old and vain ! 

The war should not end without the inhibition of a Power which 
by instinct dissembles, which recognizes no rights or needs save its 
own, and which is largely responsible for the growth and size of the 
monster now devastating the earth. Should England, with the aid of 
her allies in Europe and America, come out ahead, she will prove 
tyrannical beyond human endurance; for already she flouts interna- 
tional law, injures neutral commerce as never before, destroys enemy 
warships in neutral waters, and thirsts to starve out the civilians of a 
whole nation. Curtailment of British naval supremacy would be the 



happiest thing that could befall the world. The young American re- 
public during the years 1793-1815 grew restless under less coercion. 
Yet then as now America proved weak and inert before the might of 
her former oppressor, and not till Henry Clay appeared some decades 
later was anything worth while done. Frederick the Great, impressed by 
the necessity for the neutralization of the seas, attempted to effect this 
in his treaty with America, but all such efforts on the part of smaller 
nations were defeated by Great Britain. Thus the victory of the Allies 
will mean to our country precisely what her strangely deluded press 
imagine it will NOT: the elimination for many years more of that free- 
dom of the seas for which Germany, alone among the great Powers, al- 
ways has stood. Because England affects free trade, which is entirely 
a matter of self-interest, and has a loose, inchoate civil system, we 
credit her with a passion for freedom which she does not possess, since 
under the shadow of a powerless king she submits to an oligarchy 
the most unscrupulous on the globe. 

One clear line of fundamental purpose, says an astute observer, 
lies through the centuries of British expansion : the conquest and dom- 
ination of the keys to all the important maritime routes. Only one is 
left, destined to become the greatest of all — the Panama Canal. Let 
America never, never forget that ! 

A Russia in possession of her heart's desire would settle the 
Balkan question automatically, and consequently the war. Bulgaria, a 
strong and virtuous nation, by every law of God and man should re- 
gain the Turkish provinces acquired in 1912 only to be lost in 1913 
through the sinister action of the Powers ; she should retake that por- 
tion of Macedonia settled by her own kinsmen, of which she was de- 
prived by the Greek-Servian treachery, and should receive from Rou- 
mania, without conflict, her own Silistria and Dobrudja. "Nothing is 
ever settled until it is settled right." Servia, no longer needed by Rus- 
sia, her claws drawn, could sink back into her original obscurity, or 
pave the way to the Aegean, whose ports Austria needs and could 
improve. While there would be no Balkan Confederation, a greater 
Bulgaria, acceptable to the Triple Alliance, probably to Roumania and 
Russia, should insure peace for a long time. 

A just peace makes for security not only in the countries at war 
but everywhere. Commerce comes up with a bound, the arts take on 
new life, international comity prevails. Social and political conditions 
will continue what men and nations make them. There is no magic 
in right thinking and right living, in common sense and common action. 
It simply means hard work and a definite ideal. 

While religion, like insight, sympathy and understanding, comes 
not at call, this great universal sorrow cannot pass without a quickening 
of the spirit which will enter every phase of life and carry civilization 
far. 



CITIZEN Ai KmSER. 



March 8, 1915. 

More insistent hourly grow the mutterings of Indian 
discontent. England has treated India, a country of like char- 
acter in native literature, art and spirit, much the same as Ireland. 
Her famines have been due to precisely the same causes: enforced 
absorption in agriculture, that England might monopolize manufac- 
tures. India was not always an exclusively agricultural land, nor were 
famines of regular occurrence — her conquerors have done all that. 
Lately, we who count among our friends the more intelligent of this 
attractive and pitiful people have received significant hints to the ef- 
fect that England's employment of the Indians against the whites 
might affect her as she little dreamed — might, in fact, prove a boom- 
erang. The cowed native, forever forbidden to carry arms, is for the 
first time in centuries awakening >o a realization of his own power. 

Lajpat Rai, a member of the Lahore City Council, and one of 
the six delegates sent to England last summer by the Indian National 
Congress to take up various important matters on Indian affairs with 
the Secretary of State for India, in the New York "Times" of Feb. 21, 
'15, voices the feeling some of us have been aware of for years. 
Almost two decades ago, when it was not uncommon to see the 
British masters beat with sticks the native servants, we were told 
in India, and by the Indians, how England squeezed the life out of 
her victims; how she "milked" their ancient land for the benefit of 
the British Isles till conditions had become intolerable — that the 
day of reckoning must be at hand. In view of this, the words of so 
sound a thinker, lawyer and patriot as Lajpat Rai are full of 
meaning, as are those of Basanta Koomer Roy, the friend of Rabin- 
roth Tanjore — not to speak of lectures resulting from a recent so- 
journ in India, by our own Prof. William R. Shepherd, of Columbia 
University. The Indian lawyer admits honestly that India's attitude 
toward the war is neither altruistic nor disinterested; that as a result 
of her loyalty "she hopes for a radical readjustment of her political 
relations with England"; that allowed for the first time to fight 
against the white man she has been taught in France her own 
strength; that "moderate India hopes to gain self-government by 
the good will of Great Britain, extremist India hopes to win it in 
spite of Great Britain" ; but that the goal of both is the same, and "it 
will add to the glory of Great Britain if India gets it without 
bloodshed." 



The yeast is working, the handwriting is on the wall! Already 
England's opposition to Russia's entrance to the Mediterranean 
is withdrawn. Great Britain's pride is paying dear these days for her 
past sins and selfishness. It is the irony of fate that the Empire's 
Indian subjects should be regaining their ancient courage in the battle 
against the Germans; that they are realizing what they can do and 
demand through an infraction of all previous rules of war! Their 
leaders say they will be a source of strength to the British Empire 
if dealt with justly and liberally. But what if they are not? Promises. 
English promises, diplomatic promises in time of need, are made to be 
broken. Therefore, will India have the power and the courage to re- 
cover that independence and that sword of which she has so long been 
deprived? Her own princes, content with nominal power, who fur- 
nish the money to send the troops to Europe, in their supine accept- 
ance of national enslavement are perhaps their country's worst 
enemies. The Indians are not by nature warlike; yet now they have 
seen a great light, and the spark of patriotism once aglow — well, 
I've beheld it myself on Indian soil, and it stirs one; a calm, im- 
passive man transformed, through the appeal of his country's wrongs, 
into something resembling the sacrificial flame, with eyes lit like 
stars. 

The "allies" in these parts certainly are queer. They seem fever- 
ish and unhealthy. Why should they so suddenly gee excited over a 
truism? Not only did the Germans, in the period of Germany's pov- 
erty and weakness, when it was the distracted battleground of all Eu- 
rope, come to the United States to better themselves financially, but so 
did and do the English, the Irish, the Scandinavians, the French, the 
Italians, the Russians, the Jews, the Poles; and most of them become 
citizens — all save the English, who return with their "pile" to England 
almost as unfailingly as the Chinese to China. The majority, particu- 
larly the Germans and the Irish, constituting half our republic, are as 
loyal Americans as any among us who had the luck to arrive, or cur 
ancestors for us, in the dim past of the seventeenth century, to wrest 
a hard living from rocky New England, for pure love of freedom, 
after English oppression became unbearable. That was the ideal immi- 
gration, that and the French Huguenot, but who shall say the other, 
by far the larger, has not proved to a young and growing nation in 
need of all help every whit as valuable? 

In America, as in other countries, there are those who don't know 
and those who won't know. Among them are the Americans, the 
"only" Americans in their own eyes, who keep asking through the 
press why, if they are so fond of the old country, our German citizens 
fail to return and fight for her — though the Germans are not timid nor 
these ink-slingers brave. As a matter of fact there are thousands of 
caged Germans here impatient to join the colors, but unable to do so 
because of English warships. Most of them, however, are not yet 
American citizens (nor may they ever want to be after all 
these insults), and as for those who are, while it is proper and 
natural for them to sympathize with Germany in her liovir q| trial. 



indeed they would be inhuman did they not, it seems hardly good 
form to imperil allegiance to the new country by joining the army 
of the old. 

One respects the ardent patriot chafing under the restraint 
of the enemy and eager to get away; one feels for the German-Amer- 
ican under the galling verbal fire of those who do not understand — 
who are too prejudiced to take a rational view of the war; but for the 
dyed-in-the-wool American subjects who go forth into a foreign con- 
flict, as some now in the countries of the Allies add themselves to an 
already preponderant offensive — well, for such as these, in a war like 
this, with the United States in no sense involved, one is at a loss 
for words. 

Some Americans who have been here a little longer than their 
German friends seem publicly to assume towards them the attitude 
of a host — and a very rude host at that. Among these are one or two 
of the "simon-pure" variety who help along a silly political scare by 
advocating the boycott of all with Teutonic terminations to their 
names! Then there are those who industriously sum up what 
America has done for the Germans while conveniently forgetting what 
the Germans have done for America. SeMom in national affairs Is 
there a "give" without a "take," and here the German-American, with 
a half century of splendid achievements back of him, stands on solid 
ground. Whatever the chance offered by a new land, this immigrant 
has repaid his obligation tenfold. The sons of that nation whose stride 
forward in every line of activity has been the marvel of the age are 
not the ones to accept opportunity without rich return. Not only 
in our great material progress are we heavily indebted to German 
thought, science and endeavor (and by and by may be still more so 
in economic and political advance), but in art and hygiene. Says 
one of German blood herself, though an active American citizen : 

"As individuals and as a nation the Germans have plenty of faults, 
but the virtues far outweigh the shortcomings. The Germans came 
here, of course, to better their conditions, but they gave more than they 
received. For one thing, the United States is indebted to them almost 
entirely for the great musical advance. Three thousand German clubs 
are modelled on the Maennerchor idea alone. Physical culture was 
introduced to this country through the humble Turner Vereins. Almost 
every German who immigrated to America from 1830 to 1880 joined a 
Maennerchor and a Turn Verein — the one for musical culture, the other 
to keep his body strong and his blood clean. The Kindergarten idea, 
now universal, is of German origin, and the first teachers were Ger- 
mans. As workers in any field, the demand for them always has been 
great, and in case of competition preference has been shown for a 
nationality whose integrity, efficiency and vigor are understood by 
all." 

Still, no matter how much, in this crazy year, we may deride or 
applaud these people, we must eventually lose them, according to one 
prominent German-American who came here in 1865, and who writes : 
"While I share your belief in the benefits that might follow predomi- 



nant Gennan influence in our country, I regret to say this cannot hap- 
pen — because German immigration ceases. Germany is now able, 
through better conditions, to hold her children, while airecting them, 
in the future, when superfluous, to the colonies of which she is in 
need. Our sons and daughters, too, are different from their parents, 
and their children in turn will be still farther removed. So it goes on." 

The German Emperor, alas! needs a word of sympathy and im- 
derstanding in our time quite as much as did Lincoln in his. Napoleon 
in his, Frederick the Great in his, Savonarola in his, and all supreme 
and soHtary spirits in all times. Denunciation is cheap and easy, but 
appreciation, particularly by the simple, often keen and true, like the 
eyes of a child, is far more difficult to obtain. The following letter is 
from the pen of a brave and modest soldier whose English may be a 
little odd, but whose heart is all right. It is dated Oct. 26, 1914, a 
time when the American papers were printing endess fairy-tales 
from England about the German people's disloyalty to the German 
Emperor, and in its picturesque homeliness reveals plainly how one 
young fellow, and with him inevitably millions of others, were and 
still are thinking and feeling: 

Since I heard from you, heavy clouds of danger have gathered round 
our loved Fatherland, through this terrible war arranged against ua by 
nearly all the world. 

You cannot imagine the great hatred that moves the whole German 
nation, inflamed by such a base attack. We do not condemn the French or 
the poor Allies— they are the unhappy misled— all our holy oath of revenge 
belongs to the perfidious and criminal English. 

Nobody In Germany, I assure you, once wished this war. Therefore, 
the people stood up as one man, assembled around our sublime Kaiser, to 
fight, conquer, or die, never resting till the enemies, so numerous, shall 
be vanquished. 

An officer in the Kaiser's army, I am proud to be permitted to fight 
with him. Our affairs are progressing favorably. We carried battle and 
death into the hostile countries, and to-day no soldier of the whole band 
of conspirators stands on the Fatherland's soil. 

I beg you to say to all your friends how brave and confident are the 
German people in every way. Do not believe the lies of the Englishmen, 
and be sure we .shall at last be the victors, for our sword Is drawn in a 
high and holy cause. We feel we cannot fail. 

A little seamstress up the Hudson, when handed the red booklet 
entitled "An American Woman's Plea for Germany," declined it with 
thanks, exclaiming: "Humph! Plea for Germany! Germany needs no 
plea!" 

These are the people, counted by the million, of whom the Em- 
peror well may be proud, as are they, so passionately, of him — the 
man of all men for his people and his time ; the man to carry Germany 
safely through. 

In his sense of responsibility, his belief in divine right, his strange 
mystical trend, and his power to make the dream come true; above 
all, in his proud isolation, undaunted before the coalition implacably 
arrayed against him — is there not something about the German Em- 
peror to-day which recalls another Emperor and moment a century 
ago? In the little village of Laffrey, the Great Exile took heart; he 
once more faced a world at bay, and even then might have shown 
himself supreme had it not been for the ancestors of this Man of the 
Hour. May the strength both of Bonaparte and Bluecher unite in 
Wilhelm the HohenzoUern and lead him to the victory for which so 
many pray! 





Almost precisely a century ago, March 7, 1815, Napoleon I. 
crossed the hamlet of Laffrey, in Dauphine, on his escape from exile 
in Elba. Inscribed on a placard nailed to a humble dwelling there are 
words more beautiful, in their sad simplicity, than even the famous 
"Here Died Wolfe Victorious" : for they proved but the prelude to that 
living death so soon to follow. Realizing, as he again met his own 
people, that it was now but a call from soul to soul. Napoleon spoke : 

1 Soldats! 

Je suis votre Empereur, 
Ne me reconnaissez-vous pas 

S'il en est un parmi vous 
Qui veuille tuer son General. 
7 Mars. 1815. 

And this is the man whom the French in derision, and to the 
detriment of both, such is their inappreciation of a glorious past, com- 
pare to the Kaiser they loathe. 

It is the privilege of a young American to recall to mankind this 
touching episode — to do for France what she no longer seems able to 
do for herself : 

LAFFREY. 

By Amy S. Bridgman. 

The dust of all the decades since thy deathless day 
Lies deep on thee, O shabby little street! 
Thy ragged, unkempt walls are squalid, poor and gray, 
And, all-uncaring, countless casual feet 

Heve trampled where he trod — thine Eagle-Emperor! Still, 
A sacred Something sits with brooding wmgs 
Above the spot and, vibrant, beatmg back from hill 
To purple hill, an echoing voice still rings 

"Voila!" Uncaged, he holds the moment once again, 
In talon-grasp, almost Jehovah's place 
Usurps. Supreme, once more, this soaring man of men 
With great "I AM!" thrills through the narrow space. 

Laffrey! My fancy paints no other hour so great 
In all his hurtling flight. One royal tone: 
The soldiers sA'erve aside; Grenoble unbars her gate. 
Immortal, truly, thy Napoleon! 



TIE mjrm tide. 

March, 31, 1915. 

Americans lately have been receiving letters and appeals from 
authoritative Englishwomen, declaring that thousands upon thousands 
of aU classes in England are opposed to the war. and iniplormg us m 
America to aid in bringing about peace. These communications show 
not only distrust of the British Foreign Office, and sympathy for Uer- 
many, holding her the victim rather than the instigator of the present 
state of things, but with rare courage put the blame where it belongs— 
on England. The appeals for help are signed not only by the English 
but by well-known women on the Continent, and include the bociai 
Democrats of Russia and even a French mother of soldiers m France. 
It would seem as if the Peace Conference at The Hague next month, 
bringing so many earnest women together, must be productive of re- 

suits • 

Yet as one listener put it. after an exhortation the other day in 
Boston by Rosika Schwimmer: "If only she or anybody else could tell 
us one definite thing to DO !" . , , 

"What CAN we do ?" was the question put to a busy woman, wtio 

answered promptly: . j • • 

"Nothing; the only thing that will bring about peace is— a decisive 

victory for the Allies." 

"What about a decisive victory for the Germans f 

"Oh they can't win!" was the reply. "They can't win by any 
chance against them at all. If they did. the world wouldn't let them." 

There's fairness for you, as well as an Irish bull ! 

Italy was pronounced by the same open mind as sure to fight for 

the Allies. , . ,. 

"And turn traitor to her own!" was the indignant response.^ 
The Triple Alliance is almost as old as the German Empire, and 
Italy has repeatedly profited by its aid. recently in the conquest of 
Tripoli. She was in dire need of this colony for her overflowing popu- 
lation drifting steadily away to the two Americas, which France 
promised to obtain for her "peacefully." but when she failed to keep 
her word it was Germany and Austria who brought the quarry down. 
So many falsehoods are afloat these days that no one can be sure of 
anything ; but if it be true that Italy thinks of taking French leave of 
the Triple Alliance to join the Triple Entente she fully deserves all that 
fate may have in store for her. For the Lord himself has a way of 
settling such scores. Witness the turn of affairs in the Balkans. A 
traitorous Servia left Bulgaria bleeding. Now Servia bleeds while 
Bulgaria holds the Golden Key! 



It is commonly said that Germany cannot win against such over- 
whelming odds. Yet mere matter hardly counts beside such a wonder- 
ful demonstration of spirit, such a whirlwind of patriotism, as now grips 
the whole German Empire. Compare with this the general Russian un- 
easiness or an England divided against itself. Germany is founded on a 
rock; she fights for a real thing; for her unity, so hard won — indeed, 
for her life. It is truth against falsehood, faith against doubt, and no 
sophistry on the part of her enemies can make it otherwise. Person- 
ally I have every hope and confidence that this great national uprising 
will not be in vain — for it renews one's faith in humanity. But should 
Germany prove equal to her almost superhuman task this is certain: 
the parties who now assert that victory is impossible for her will just 
as stoutly maintain that she won through sheer brute force! Make a 
note of that. It's my own patented prediction. 

No small responsibility for this furious injustice rests upon a 
group of newspapers in New York, to whom all European affairs are 
vague forms in a mist. An article in the "Atlantic Monthly," October, 
1908, by a New York editor, asking the question, "Is an Honest News- 
paper Possible?" contains the following interesting paragraph. It is an 
open secret that the reference was to the "Times" : 

One typical New York newspaper . . . has at least the potentiality 
of being a good morning daily. Its foreign news is exceptionally well 
handled at the sending end. It is, however, very badly edited, giving every 
indication that the news is consigned to the hands of some one who has 
not had the indispensable preparation of residence and worlc abroad. There 
is obvious inability to translate European thought into American terms. 
. . . What is lacking, both in the news and editorial departments, is the 
note of authority. The main editoria.ls and the empty financial article are 
all futile argument. . . .The consequence is that the editorials, like the 
foreign cables, look as if they were put in by a shovel. 

These words are seven years old, and within that time a mechanical 
improvement in the treatment of foreign news has been apparent, yet 
in all essentials the same conditions prevail. Germany herself could not 
have voiced her dissatisfaction with this newspaper, which leads all the 
rest in malign influence and horrid intent, more emphatically. Says one 
of the brightest writers on this subject: 

Millions of Americans are congenitally incapable of grasping anything 
concerning foreign affairs because they hide their heads in the sand; 
they allow their minds to be fuddled with grandiloquent platitudes and 
reverberating tub-thumpings; they allow dead politicians to do their think. 
ing for them, and are afflicted with that crowning curse of America— the 
co-educational mind. 

I sometimes think that, so far as America is concerned, Thomas 
Jefferson and thought lie buried in the same grave. 

The mere fact that so much attention was paid to the diplomatic 
books of all colors shows the intellectual state of America. Diplomacy is 
merely skillful deception, and no nation, Germany included, would publish 
any diplomatic correspondence unless it bore out its own contention. Then, 
too, the childish prattle about Kaisers and Kings and military cliques and 
militarism, the advocacy of democracy as a cure-all, and the parrot-like 
repetition of "War Is Hell," make one wonder if our statistics about educa- 
tion are not heavily padded. , ^ „ 

If war is hell, the United States was conceived and born in hell, grew 
to manhood in hell and was indissolubly united in hell. Treitschke is right 
when he says all states owe their existence and growth to war, but few 
Americans are honest enough to admit it. 

12 



As proof of the bias of the majority of American newspapers, 
one v/ide-awake citizen calls attention to the "remarkable fact that in 
the present controversy between the United States and England they 
have taken sides against their own country, have upheld the illegal 
acts of another country causing great loss to their own, and seem op- 
posed to the policy of their own Government." 

Are we becoming last as first an ignominious tail to England's 
imperial kite ? It was not for this that our forefathers fought and bled 
and died. 

The average American has no conception of events as they really 
are taking place in Europe. He does not realize that for weeks and 
months nothing favorable to the Germans or unfavorable to the Allies 
was allowed to get by the British censor, the source of all our vitiated 
views. He does not know, as do we with friends on the ground, that 
the pillaging of the Germans was not a circumstance to that of the 
French, who robbed their own countrywomen, running through the 
villages crying out that the enemy was upon them and all valuables 
must be surrendered for safekeeping, which proved so safe that men, 
money or trinkets were never seen again, as the victims testify. He 
does not know the true story of the sacking of Saarburg, in Alsace, at 
the beginning of hostilities, when noncombatants were corralled in the 
church, which becam.e the target for French guns, and two men came 
out alive! 

These are the heart-rending incidents ; but also he does not know 
the sweet and tender things, one that instead of loafing and drinking 
while resting between battles, awaiting orders, the energy of the Ger- 
mans constructed a superb granite monument, sixty feet high, for those 
who had fallen, and on which were carved the dead heroes' names. 
Nor does he know how every man and woman in the Fatherland stands 
ready to sacrifice life and property, the prosperous caring for the poor, 
some supporting four families, while to do this women give up their 
jewels, "and do it joyfully," says one, "realizing that mere things are 
nothing, but principle and patriotism everything." 

Nor do Americans know that it was the German soldiers of this 
slandered army who taught the children of Belgium and France, 
hitherto knowing only a dull foregathering in church, the spirit of 
Christmas which from time immemorial has come out of Germany. 
Every camp not only had its tree decorated as best might be with 
cakes, chocolates, toys and what not from home, distributed to the tales 
of Kriss Kringle, but the children, holding back at first, afraid of the 
brute Germans, at last were hanging about the necks of the lusty fel- 
lows, who wept upon their heads for thinking of their own babies or 
brothers and sisters at home. 

All this is not hearsay, but the actual facts, as told by those on 
the spot, in personal letters escaping the fate of previous communica- 
tions, and now just beginning to find their way to relatives and friends 
in the United States. 

IS 



Si BY THE ENEi. 



"Sir Edward Grey is now an idol of the British people, because 
of his conduct of various diplomatic affairs before and during the 
war. His maneuvering of Germany into a position of aggressiveness, 
his work in keeping Italy out of the line of the Triple Alliance, his 
coup in binding France and Russia not to conclude a separate peace, 
and his success in blocking Germany's efforts in the Balkans have 
brought to him enthusiastic support from all parties." 

This is a special cable dispatch to the New York "World" 
of April 2. Eyes open wide at the notion that Sir Edward Grey is a 
popular idol, supported by all parties for that musty diplomacy, seek- 
ing not the right but the wi!y thing, which by just men, even within 
the Empire itself, is so deeply deplored. 

But to begin with the last first. So far England has had no suc- 
cess whatever in blocking Germany in the Balkans, for the excellent 
reason that she is in full accord with the desire of Bulgaria to 
remain neutral, and almost equally so with the policy of Roumania. 
If fight they must, either or both, not likely will it be with the 
Entente, unless Germany is "in articulo mortis," or quite, quite dead. 

As for the coup preventing a separate peace by France or Russia, 
only another evidence of England's determination to make others 
suffer for her — to do her dirty work for her, as the Crown Prince 
bluntly puts it — that was a sinister trick the chief effect of which will 
be to prolong the misery of the war. 

The efforts of England, despite her heavy weeping over the 
broken Belgian treaty, to induce Italy to go and do likewise, are 
strenuous enough to be worthy of a better cause. Yet as Italy here- 
tofore has shown herself neither knave nor fool, let us hope she may 
not now. 

What clearer proof of Germany's absolute honesty than this 
frank admission from the lips of the enemy that Grey was successful 
in maneuvering her "into a position of aggressiveness"? Here she is 
borne out, by incontrovertible evidence, in her chief contention: that 
she did not want this war ; that she was drawn into it through loyalty 
to her distressed ally; that the conversion of a strictly local affair 
into a huge cataclysm is due entirely to the duplicity of England. 

Germany's best friend could say no more for her than this stupid 
Englishman ! 

American editorials on the Bismarck centenary gravely approve 
the one quality in the great chancellor which was least commendable: 
his ability to make the enemy SEEM to provoke war ! What is this if 



not an unconscious tribute to the Germany of to-day, who at last rec- 
ognizes a higher diplomacy — that based not on intrigue and decep- 
tion, the stronghold of Metternich and Machiavelli, but on the 
TRUTH. 

In a world at war calumnies run riot. Polite France was never so 
rude and unjust as to-day. She asserts, among worse things, that Ger- 
many has grown humble, and egotistically attributes it to the failure to 
enter Paris, 

That Germany has grown humble, as should all in the hour of 
grief, may be true, but that she longed to conquer France a second 
time the British White Book itself refutes. Its pages make plain that 
Germany desired to fight neither France nor England, nor any other 
who did not interfere with Austria's duty to her dead. 

Germany begged from England the guarantee of French neu- 
tra'ity; she had no quarrel with France, no wish to stir up the em- 
bers of 1870 — she coveted nothing that France could give. All she 
demanded was that, if forced to battle with Russia, her rear should 
not be imperilled. 

Failing to capture Paris, the French assert, the German soldiers 
lost morale and their leaders heart. Nobody cares much for a twice- 
told tale, nor are these the times when to take the capital is to win the 
war. Yet there are elderly gentlemen who honestly believe the Kaiser 
made an engagement to dine in Paris on Sept. 7, 1914! 

But to keep every hostile foot off the Fatherland, to fight the 
Fatherland's battles on the enemy's soil, each German strove to do, 
and has done. That is the cardinal principle of modern defensive war, 
and Wilhelm II. had no idea other than defense unless the god of bat- 
tles should prove uncommon kind. 

Towards England the feeling is different. To see your own kins- 
men turn against you is hard. By aiding Austria in her manifest 
right Germany had stirred up against herself half of Europe; and 

when added to this came the treachery of her own blood well, 

like the rest of us, she is human. The Russian menace, always very 
real to such a tenaciously "white" race, sank into insignificance beside 
this. Hence the bitter personal feeling, totally different from the 
racial distaste for and national fear of the encroaching Slav. Her 
own blood had failed her, had joined with the ever-present alien and 
still more distant ones, had defied every law of family and country. 
Thus Lissauer's "Chant of Hate" was born, so wicked, yet so won- 
derful and thrilling — "the" poem of the war. 

"Bismarck ,as I read him. ... is striving with strong faculty by 
patient, grand and successful steps, towards an object beneficial to Ger- 
mans and to all other men. That noble, patient, deep, pious and solid 
Germany should at length be welded into a Nation, and become Queen of 
the Continent, instead of vaporing, vainglorious, gesticulating, quarrel- 
some, restless and over-sensitive France, seems to me the hopefulest 
public fact that has occurred in my time." 

No, this is not from some ultra German patriot in 1915, but from 
Thomas Carlyle, hero of English letters in the illustrious reign of 
Victoria! 

15 



TRimi FROM ENGLIIi, 



An Englishwoman, whose beautiful home in London since the be- 
ginning of the war has been a refuge for English, German and Belgian 
alike, writes Feb. 16, 1915 : 

"The sheer madness of the whole thing is so apparent that one 
would think the fool might see it. The people are blinded by fear of 
each other, and in this state the politicians lead them where they will. 
The worst feature of the war is not the fighting, but the bitterness and 
hate and distrust among the people at home. The soldiers largely re- 
spect one another and despise the mean and slanderous talk of the 
press. But the politicians and war-mongers know it serves their pur- 
pose. 

"I am glad public opinion in America is swinging back in the di- 
rection of Germany. I do not believe it is Germany who stands in the 
way of Peace — a just Peace. I believe that if Britain and her allies de- 
sired a just Peace it could be gained in a month, or at least an armistice 
could be declared, and I hope the neutral nations will combine in pres- 
sure upon the belligerents to bring this about. Why should they stand 
meekly by while Russia and England, to satisfy their greed and pride, 
penalize the whole world ? 

"Economic pressure in Germany is killing more babies, not only in 
Germany but in England, than men who have been killed in the war. 
Our poor people are always hungry, and infant mortality has gone up 
with a bound. Ours probably is much higher than that of Germany, 
because the Germans are so well organized and are controlling and con- 
serving their supply, whereas our people are wholly unprotected, an 
easy prey to those who are exploiting them. 

"The Society of Friends I am hoping may be stirred to action, for 
they could do what would be possible to no other body. I met one of 
their most prominent peace workers, and she told me that if she could 
see the German Emperor she felt she should go down on her knees 
to him and beg him to forgive us. There are thousands of people here 
who are opposed to the war, but I think not many who feel like that, 
though I do myself ! 

"I believe America could help much, unofficially, if she would; 
that a well-conceived scheme initiated there would tremendously 
strengthen the hands of many here — of all who are longing to make 
themselves heard and felt in regard to the desirability of invoking an 
armistice and calling a Conference of Europe to settle terms of peace." 

l6 



The same writer follows this with another letter, dated March 27, 
from which are taken these almost sibylline words : 

"I am much interested in what you say about the desire to see 
vengeance visited on Germany. I have no doubt Germany will suffer 
for the evil she has done — and is suffering. We all are suffering and 
will suffer unless we unite to change our ways of thought and living. 
And America will not escape unless she too learns her lesson and sets 
herself the task of putting her house in order. 

"I pray she may not blunder into the hopelessly mad course that 
the European countries have pursued in their policy toward one an- 
other. Surely it must be plain to every one now that, if we are to pre- 
serve the Western nations from annihilation, there must be a complete 
change from the policy of barbaric selfishness, now the accepted prin- 
ciple in the foreign offices of each and all the nations. And that 
change will not reach political relations until i* comes actively into the 
lives of the people, so that they firmly determine to see it expressed 
not only in private but in national life as well. Substitute the idea of 
service for selfishness and see where all this glad abandon of courage 
and devotion and self-sacrifice will carry us ! 

"It could be done. That all these immeasurable spiritual forces 
are now turned to destruction is simply the result of the hypnotism by 
which the youth and beauty of our races are led to commit acts from 
whose sheer hideousness the soul recoils in horror. 

"We have been living our lives and thinking our thoughts and 
developing our nations on the principle that Christ was not wise, 
whereas now it is abundantly plain for those who will see that there 
is NO OTHER WISDOM. I can see the Evil One gloating over hij 
success at playing the "angel of light," and the fact that, unlike Christ 
on the mount of temptation, we have failed to discover his disguise. 
Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God. When shall we 
gather into our hearts the courage to embark on the 'great adventure' 
of really following Him even though it lead us to our Calvary?" 



»7 



liAORE TRUTH FROM ENGLAND, 



A British subject of high social and political rank writes the 
following out of the fullness of his heart. He is neither an Irishman nor 
a Bernard Shaw, but he is plainly impressed by England's guilt in 
permitting the war to take place, her madness in prolonging it, and the 
contributory foolishness of America. The letter is dated Paris, March 
21,1915: 

"I am glad the people in the States are at last becoming more im- 
partial. They now are able to perceive how the Allies by their false 
news and hypocritical propaganda have been misleading them. They 
begin to comprehend, as your press dispatches show, that they may be 
caught in the toils of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. Japan took Kaio- 
Chau with the condition that she restore it to China, but now she wants 
to keep it, and England seems quite willing, provided her own interests 
are safe. 

"What does this mean? That in a few years Japan will swallow 
China whole ; then one day annex the Philippines, and with the help of 
England, Canada and Mexico maybe California — while America, with 
all her dollars, will be helpless. So many Americans, absorbed in their 
personal interests, do not see that every bullet sold to Europe may in 
the near future be used against their kin and skin, if the Allies ever 
obtain a crushing victory. 

"Germany is condemned as a breaker of treaties, but what about 
the Allies? England and France offered Turkish islands to Greece if 
she would support them with a few thousand men. Again, poor Italy 
is trying to save her honour by being neutral, but England is intriguing 
constantly (she has bought up many politicians) to make the distracted 
kingdom break her treaty, while for that old rag of a Belgian treaty 
John Bull kicked up such a row. 

"I hope Italy remains neutral, but if she must intervene, certainly 
not on the side of the Entente — for she can gain nothing, and nobody 
ever will trust her again. By joining England she could get no more 
than a bit of Austria, which would not much improve her position, 
but if even now she actively aids her own Alliance, there is her old 
province of Savoy held by the French, and she might get Tunisia, per- 
haps Malta, and thus become Mistress of the Mediterranean. 

"Many do not know that the provinces of Trent and Trieste, while 
Italian speaking, never belonged to Italy ; so that if Austria cedes them 
to her it will be for political reasons, not prior claims. It was other- 

i8 



wise with Alsace-Lorraine, They were German possessions, through 
the heirs of Charlemagne, from the ninth century — and some claim 
Teutonic occupation almost back to Caesar's time — until the seven- 
teenth, when the Grand Monarch got in his fine work. The 'rights' of 
France, therefore, are not ancient at all, but comparatively modern. 

"You may smile, but I believe Christ has been incarnated in the 
German Emperor and his people. Even should Germany come out 
something less than victorious, this war will result in great benefit to 
the world. In any event German thought and science can never be de- 
stroyed, but will live on earth as did Christianity in spite of the Roman 
Empire. French art, French thought, penetrated to the heart of Russia 
when Napoleon with all his legions failed. 

"Warn America against England and Japan! If America does 
not want this war let her suspend just for three months all commerce 
with England — and particularly this sad traffic in munitions which, as 
we incline to idealize her, is shocking us so. Stop this and see how 
nuickly Peace will reign!" 



»9 



STRONG HDS. 



(From a Contributor to The Outlook, February 17, 1915.) 

I am not a German-American, since I and my parents were bora 
in America, but I sympathize heartily with Germany. I cannot speak 
German, have never visited Germany, and am bound to her by no sen- 
timental ties. Nor am I among those who believe that America can 
do no wrong. 

There are a great many things about England and the English 
that I admire, and I think the British Empire is a splendid thing for 
the world in a number of respects. With the honest, hard-working 
common people of England I have no quarrel. But with a system 
which allows a Prime Minister, unknown even to other members of his 
Cabinet, to sign a treaty which binds his nation to engage in war, I 
can have no sympathy. 

Who started the war? is a question I refuse to worry about. I 
firmly believe that the war was begun by Russia, with the connivance 
of England and France. England's policy has always been one of a 
modified Donnybrook Fair — if you see a head, get some one to hit 
it for you. 

I have yet to see a logical explanation of the French loans of 
billions to Russia — loans upon which France lost in interest (consider- 
ing what she could obtain from better investments) over forty million 
dollars annually. 

The money, of course, went to arm and reorganize the Russian 
armies as rapidly as possible. In 1916 or 1917 the Russian hordes 
would be ready, and France ,Russia and England would force war on 
Germany. 

Germany knew this, and, as she had a better chance of coming 
out victoriously, or at least putting up a better fight now than later on, 
I, for one, do not blame her if she brought on this war. If she is 
beaten she will be no worse off than if she had stupidly allowed her 
known enemies to prepare thoroughly for her destruction. 

And now as to Belgium. Belgium could have saved herself from 
the horrors of war, but she was afraid of the wrath of France and 
England should she allow the Germans to cross her territory; for she 



thought, with almost all the rest of the world, that the Allies would 
make short work of Germany. She staked her all on the wrong horse 
and lost. 



When Maeterlinck tells an Italian audience that Belgium stood up 
without hope and sacrificed herself for the cause of justice, he insults 
the intelligence of the world. Belgium was given to understand that 
France and England would come to her aid if she were invaded ; that 
the war would be fought along the Liege-Namur line, and from there 
the invasion of Germany would take place. And with this under- 
standing Belgium fought. 



So Belgium lies crushed and bleeding, with a broken heart, a vic- 
tim of misplaced confidence — another of England's dupes. And Eng- 
land, to cover her duplicity and impotence, unloosens her forces of 
canting, sniveling hypocrites upon the world. 



And if this war results in putting an end to the buffer state idea 
it will have accomplished at least one good purpose. For Belgium is 
only a buffer state, formed chiefly through the aid of England to pro- 
tect herself from France and Germany. Hence English crocodile 
tears. 

It will be a blessing if Belgium becomes a part of an empire able 
to protect it from further harm. Belgium, by right, ought to be a part 
of Germany, or at least a member of the customs union. 

A word with those whose chauvinism takes the form of glorifying 
democracy and sneering at aristocracy and monarchy. We in America 
can afford to put up with the extravagance, inefficiency and mediocrity 
of our Government, since we possess a rich, undeveloped continent, 
geographically separated from strong foreign foes. But for Germany 
to adopt democracy would be to commit economic suicide; and it 
would mean such an intellectual and sentimental wrench as would be 
involved in a change from Catholicism to Protestantism or the re- 
verse. 



There have been various suggestions as to what should be done to 
Germany should the Allies be successful. If the Allies wish to cripple 
her permanently and make of her a secondary Power, all they have to 
do is to insist that Germany adopt a democratic form of government. 

And so I hope and pray that Germany will be victorious, for the 
following reasons: 

I sympathize with her naturally, because she is the foully slandered 
imder dog. 



If Germany wins, it will be a triumph of efficiency and fore- 
sight over the muddlers-through and the wasters. 

It will be a triumph of a land of homes over a land of race sui- 
cide and selfishness ; and figuratively, it will be a victory of Sparta over 
decadent Rome. 

The world needs a Germany, a believer in masculinism, to counter- 
act the effeminacy, namby-pambyism, skim-milkism, and doormatism 
that are leading to degeneracy and decay. 

Prof. Usher says he wishes England to win because she allows 
us to keep Porto Rico, and because the English navy maintains the 
Monroe Doctrine. If that be true, we are nothing but a kept Nation; 
and therefore I wish Germany to win because we will then have to 
pay our own way and stand on our own feet. 



Austria-Hungary, 1914-1915 

O land of many tongues, ivith past 
Chequered, and present overcast; 
Land of the Danube rolling strong 
Its wooded bariks and cliffs along; 
Land of broad plains and mountains high, 
Of wheat and vines and friendly sky. 
Where peasants, gay ivith song and dance, 
Suggest a more exotic France; 

Hast thou not since the long ago 

Suffered enough of toil and woe? 

Hast thou not guarded Europe well 

From onsets of the Infidel, 

Clifflike amid the mad waves' toss, 

EasteJii Bulwark of the Cross? 

Hast thou not oft, though scarce through lust 

Of conquest, staggered in the dust 

Of sore defeat, and in the gloom 

That wraps the Hapsburgs' line of doom? 

Couldst thou not turn another page 

Of history in this onward age. 

And, peaceful, give thy peoples laws 

And progress, ivith the world's applause? 

Ah, no! before thy portals sate 

Incarnate Murder, Greed, and Hate, 

And, ere thou couldst avert the blow, 

The crown of all thy hopes lay loiv! 

Then in just anger, deep, not rash. 
Thou struck' st, and lo! the armed clash 
Of jealous nations ayisxtrered. Now 
Thou battiest ivith undaunted brow 
And hand of steel, ivhile at thy side 
Thy great Ally, in all the pride 
Of patriotic strength doth stand. 
Faithful, impregnable, and grand! 

Strike on, strike on, and show the loorld 

Thy fearless banner high unfurled; 

Let him who will thy course decry, 

Thy valor is thy best reply; 

May PrzemysVs heroic fall 

Prove but a louder battle call; 

And, when subsides the din of arms, 

Resume, Austria, thy charms 

Through suffering heightened, and once more 

Let Music rule the Danube's shore! 

W. P. TRENT. 
23 



Jtanuscript completed 
April 7, 1915. 



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